Today’s Market Wrap Up and a Glimpse Into Friday

Now that the cat is out of the bag on inflation, stocks have chosen a direction and it’s mostly down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points to fall by less than 1%. The S&P 500 was similarly down fractionally, while the Nasdaq managed to gain close to 1%.

While stocks are taking a hit, the U.S. dollar is on the rise. The dollar index gained 0.5% to revisit April highs amid a suddenly hawkish Fed and a pair of rate hikes in the pipeline.

One-Two Punch

Today was the second straight day of declines for the Dow in a Fed-fueled market pullback. Monetary policymakers confronted the fact that inflation is near and accelerated their plan for interest rate hikes. This served as a one-two punch to the markets, including the financial services sector where banks took a hit. Mortgage rates are reportedly already on the rise in anticipation of interest rate hikes.

• Bank of America fell more than 4%
• Morgan Stanley shed 3.5%
• JPMorgan was down just below 3%

‘Psychological Wildfire’

Meme stock AMC Entertainment tacked on another 10% today to hover above the psychologically important USD 60 threshold. A couple of traders were featured by CNBC’s Fast Money to discuss the stock and the WallStreetBets movement.

Matt Kohrs, an AMC trader, believes AMC shares will go higher because of “the power of the psychological wildfire that the social and cultural movement has” created, the impact of which is being reflected in the chart.

Trey Collins, another AMC trader, described a “revolution” and a “new opportunity to make money” that is not your traditional stock market. He pointed to a “bullish” AMC chart that is “consolidating in that USD 55-65 range,” which “shows strength.” Trey believes that the stock will continue to move higher because investors are holding in anticipation of just that, which will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Matt is not really interested in AMC’s fundamentals and called the stock a “swing trade” rather than a long-term investment. He is willing to talk about fundamentals after the short squeeze happens.

Glimpse Into Friday

While the earnings calendar is looking quiet for Friday, there are several stocks making upward moves in after-hours trading that could spill over into tomorrow. Among the stocks that are trading higher in extended-hours include:

• Adobe on the heels of its earnings report.
• Fox Corp on an announced  USD 2 billion stock repurchase plan.
• Smith & Wesson on the heels of its Q4 and full-year earnings report